Scheduling an appointment in a calendar application on a mobile electronic communications device, such as a cellular telephone or personal digital assistant (“PDA”), is a useful and convenient method to maintain a schedule. However, using the mobile electronic communications device to schedule an appointment can be challenging when the device's display screen is not visible while the device is held proximate to a user's ear during an oral communications session. To schedule an appointment, the oral communications session is interrupted by taking the mobile electronic communications device away from the user's ear such that the available time slots displayed are visible. After seeing the available time slots, the user again puts the mobile electronic communications device proximate to his ear, for example to tell the party participating in the oral communications session, of the available time slots. If the available time slots are not suitable, the oral communications session is again interrupted as the device is again taken away from the user's ear to make display screen, and hence the available time slots, visible. The process continues until a suitable time slot is found.
The process of interrupting the oral communications session to search for an available time slot results in a waste of network resources. The network link facilitating the oral communications session idles when an oral communications session is interrupted while available time slots are searched. Furthermore, the network link is maintained for longer than necessary, while the available time slots are searched.